IKI
«Desde el principio, IKI se convirtió en un lugar donde la colectividad era el centro, donde la voz individual podía disolverse, permitiéndonos profundizar en la esencia de lo que la voz puede ser».
¿Por qué investigan la «interacción entre lo orgánico y lo mecánico, lo espontáneo y lo analítico, lo improvisado y lo compuesto»?
«Como ensamble, siempre nos ha atraído explorar los espacios indefinidos de la música, los lugares en los que no hemos estado antes. Como improvisadoras, buscamos constantemente nuevos sonidos y patrones musicales que aún no hemos encontrado, al tiempo que nos encanta permanecer durante mucho tiempo en un mismo paisaje sonoro, donde tanto nosotros como el público podemos caer en un trance compartido».
«En 2016, cuando empezamos a trabajar en nuestro tercer álbum, ‘Oracle’, comenzamos a anhelar algo más allá del espacio puramente acústico en el que habíamos estado hasta entonces. Utilizar el procesamiento de nuestras voces nos pareció una forma natural de ampliar nuestra exploración vocal y, a través de ello, también comenzamos a experimentar con otros tipos de limitaciones. Introdujimos material un poco más compuesto para ver qué resultados daba, cómo se sentiría movernos no solo en un espacio libre, sino también dentro de unos límites establecidos».
«Este enfoque se ha llevado aún más lejos en ‘BODY’, donde nos permitimos una gran libertad en el estudio y, más tarde, durante la producción, remodelamos el material para convertir lo orgánico en mecánico a su manera. Ser humano es vivir con dualidad, y esa dualidad se convierte naturalmente en parte de nuestra música».
Basándonos en estas interacciones, ¿qué emociones surgen?
«En primer lugar, hay una profunda sensación de concentración, un estado en el que estás lo suficientemente inmersa en la música como para cumplir tus compromisos, pero lo suficientemente libre como para improvisar y responder intuitivamente dentro del marco establecido. En el momento perfecto, cuando estamos totalmente inmersas en la interacción, aparece un estado de fluidez, en el que dejas de ser consciente de lo que estás haciendo y empiezas a escuchar la música desde fuera».
A partir de la interacción de cinco cuerpos, ¿cuál es la razón para convertirse en un solo cuerpo?
«Convertirnos en un solo cuerpo ha sido un objetivo desde el principio. A menudo hablamos de nuestra música como algo que proviene de una sexta miembro, algo que vive en medio de nuestro círculo, por así decirlo. Después de tantos años cantando juntas, a veces puede resultar difícil distinguir quién es quién en una grabación, y en el escenario a menudo sentimos como si nos comunicáramos telepáticamente a la hora de decidir hacia dónde ir musicalmente. Explorarnos a nosotras mismas como un único organismo nos parece una evolución natural de un proceso en el que llevamos mucho tiempo».
¿Cómo surgió la idea de utilizar una melodía cíclica de 11 sílabas?
«A lo largo de los años, nos ha fascinado profundamente la repetición. Como cantantes, dado que nuestros cuerpos son nuestros instrumentos, la repetición también se convierte en una práctica física, una forma de mantener el cuerpo y la voz en movimiento con un ritmo saludable y sostenible. La melodía cíclica nació de esa fascinación, una frase que podíamos mantener en movimiento, explorar en múltiples formas y utilizar como una forma de profundizar en el material en sí. El número 11 es bonito, porque va en contra de la conocida sensación 4/4, que suele asociarse con la composición tradicional. El uso de un número impar en un movimiento cíclico crea un espacio elevado y más trascendente, en el que el ritmo y el groove no son tan dominantes».
IKI is a vocal ensemble formed by Norwegian Guro Tveitnes, Danish/Hungarian Kamilla Kovacs, Finnish Johanna Sulkunen, and Danish Randi Pontoppidan and Anna Mose, who since 2009 have been focused on working their voices as instruments, seeking —through body movements— to become a single body; they are connected to each other and move in unison in total coordination and communication with one another.
Their singing is characterized by both the acoustic nature of the pure sound of their voices and electronic processing, which allows them to explore new sonic nuances. Their songs fall within the realm of composition as well as the flow of improvisation, but above all, IKI flies with the purpose of exploring beyond the boundaries of the traditional role of the singer.
In his latest album, ‘BODY,’ this approach to free forms was particularly evident in the studio, as the recorded material was reformulated during the production process to convert the organic into the mechanical, thus incorporating this duality as part of their music and as a characteristic of human life.
IKI has performed at the most important venues and festivals in Europe, such as TEDx in London and the Roskilde Festival in Denmark.
They have collaborated with renowned artists such as Blixa Bargeld, Hotel Pro Forma, Damselfrau, Henrik Vibskov, Laurie Anderson, and Matthew Herbert, among others.
This interview was conducted on the occasion of the release of the album ‘BODY’ on October 17, 2025, on the Danish label Tila (checkout the review: https://loop.cl/iki/).
We thank Ed Benndorf from the Berlin-based music promotion company Dense for arranging this feature.
How did the idea of becoming an ensemble come about?
«IKI was founded in 2009 at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory in Copenhagen, where we were a group of singers tired of the traditional singer role. We wanted to explore the voice in an open forum without rules or defined boundaries. We also longed for a space where the community among singers was nurtured instead of being pushed to compete against one another.
From the very beginning, IKI became a place where the collective was paramount, where the individual voice could dissolve, allowing us to delve deeper into the essence of what the voice can be.
Why do you investigate the “interaction between the organic and the mechanical, the spontaneous and the analytical, the improvised and the composed”?
«As an ensemble, we have always been drawn to exploring the undefined spaces in music, the places we have not been before. As improvisers, we are constantly searching for new sounds and musical patterns we have not yet encountered, while also loving to stay within one sonic landscape for a long time, where both we and the audience can fall into a shared trance.»
«In 2016, when we began working on our third album ‘Oracle’, we started longing for something beyond the purely acoustic space we had been in before. Using processing on our voices felt like a natural way to extend our vocal exploration, and through that, we also began experimenting with other types of limitations. We introduced slightly more composed material to see what it would bring, how it would feel to move not only in a free space but also within set boundaries.»
«This approach has been taken even further on ‘BODY’ where we allowed ourselves great freedom in the studio, and later, during production, reshaped the material to make the organic mechanical in its own way. To be human is to live with duality, and that duality naturally becomes part of our music.»
Based on these interactions, what emotions arise?
«First of all, there is a deep sense of focus, a state where you are immersed enough in the music to keep your agreements, yet free enough to improvise and respond intuitively within the given frame. In the perfect moment, when we are fully inside the interaction, a state of flow appears, where you stop being aware of what you are doing and begin hearing the music from the outside.»
From the interaction of five bodies, what is the reason for becoming only one body?
«Becoming one body has been a goal since the very beginning. We often talk about our music as something that comes from a sixth member, something that lives in the middle of our circle, so to speak. After so many years of singing together, it can sometimes be difficult to tell who is who on a recording, and on stage we often feel as if we are communicating telepathically when deciding where to go next musically. Exploring ourselves as a single organism feels like a natural development of a process we have been in for a long time.»
How did the idea of using an 11-syllable cyclical melody come about?
«Throughout the years, we have been deeply fascinated by repetition. As singers, since our bodies are our instruments, repetition also becomes a physical practice, a way to keep the body and the voice moving in a healthy, sustainable rhythm. The cyclical melody was born out of that fascination, a phrase we could keep in motion, explore in multiple forms, and use as a way to dive deeply into the material itself. The number 11 is nice, because it goes against the well-known 4/4 feeling, which is usually associated with traditional songwriting. Using an uneven number in a cyclic movement creates an elevated and more transcending space, where rhythm and groove is not as dominant.»
